County Council Legislation (including the 2016 Subdivision Staging Policy)

Of Note

Earned Sick and Safe Leave goes into effect October 1, 2016. All employers with employees who work in Montgomery County need to understand this new law.

Background: On Thursday, July 2, 2015 County Executive Ike Leggett signed Bill 60-14 that requires most employers doing business in the County to provide earned sick and safe leave to employees for work performed in the County.

MCCC worked with other business organizations to modify the bill to address key concerns of the business community.

Important changes from the original bill include:

An employer may use a Paid Time Off (PTO) policy as long as it meets the minimum requirements of the bill

An employer that provides up to 56 hours (at the accrual rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked) at the beginning of the year is not required to carry over unused earned sick and safe leave

The effective implementation date is October 2016

An employer may notify employees of accrued sick leave through electronic means

Very part time workers (those working less than 8 hours a week) are exempt

Probation period of 90 days before an employee can use earned sick and safe leave

Reinstatement of leave for those employees involuntarily laid-off without cause if rehired within 9 months

Small Business concession: Employers with less than 5 employees will be required to provide a maximum of 4 days (32 hours) of earned sick leave and an additional 3 days (24 hours) unpaid leave (with the accrual rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked)

To see the video of the County Council session when the bill was enacted on June 23, 2015, click here.

In 2010, MCCC proposed that Montgomery County establish an independent Economic Authority. In 2015, the Montgomery County Council, at the request of the County Executive, passed Bill 25-15 to reorganize economic development responsibilities into a new non-profit organization. The legislation transfers certain duties of the current Department of Economic Development to a new Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC), ends the tenure of the Montgomery Business Development Corporation (MBDC) and creates a new Office of Agriculture in the Office of the County Executive.

The FY 2016 Operating Budget included an energy tax at the same level as FY 15 - an almost 100% increase from the taxes levied in 2010. The energy tax was passed in 2010 with the understanding that it would sunset in two years. Five years later, it is still intact and now represents the third highest source of tax generated revenue for the county.

MCCC continues to urge the County Executive and the County Council to sunset this tax that adds to the cost of doing your business. See extensive testimony from 2015.

This bill would require a County contactor subject to the Wage Requirements Law to report summary wage data, including data by gender and race, paid to their employees who work on County contracts. It would also prohibit a County contractor from retaliating against an employee who discloses salary information to another person or employee under certain circumstances.

The package of 13 energy/environmental measures are designed to ensure that Montgomery County remains at the sustainability forefront. The measures focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, transportation, and government accountability.

This bill states that contractors (of services such as janitorial, security, maintenance, etc.) who have lost their contract to another contractor must inform their employed workers of the change at least 15 days prior to the termination of the contract. The successor contractor must also retain the previous contractor's employees for at least 90 days.